today me and a few buddys were turkey and small game hunting...basically walking through the woods and fields hunting...we were sneaking through fields and some guys were in a wooded gully just walking it out..i was a little ahead waiting to them to wrap around and i seen a nice flock of turkeys across the gulley in the other field....100yds from me...i sat and watched...i knew a few of my buddys were going to walk right into them...my one buddy rolled a nice bird....17lbs gutted....spurs atleast 1-1.25inch.....needle sharp...beard.....wait.....there wasnt one?? were in the truck and hes telling me how big this hen is and everything....the other guys were in the back with the bird...we were headed to another spot....and i was still in the woods when they looked at the bird....hes like ya theres no beard...i look back and see the size and the giant spurs and said theres gota be one.....hes like find it....i get out and look....all i could find was a feather...right where a beard SHOULD be...short and sticking straight out....not growing down like the rest of the feathers there.....fan was nice and full....its a mature gobbler...no doubt in my mind...ive always read that all a beard is is a deformed feather.....is that what i found?? a beard that never completely deformed???? it wasnt like the REST of the feathers.....it was a feather though...just a little diffrent shape..size...and stuck out.....and had a longer thicker stem thing(thing that goes in the skin..lol)...what do you guys think?? thats the wierdest thing ive ever seen....it was funny because it was his first turkey and hes like its a big hen! and im telling him i can see the spurs its definently a male and i will be SHOCKED if theres not a 8+inch rope on it.....hes like well is a beard hard to see?...good times....any info? im stumped on that one....my guess is the birds "feather" didnt deform to turn into a beard??

i would guess that is what you saw, but i 'll be danged, i just dont know for sure.......

May be his wife ( hen wife ) was so mean he just couldn't be a regular Tom.

And she just hen pecked him so much he couldn't get a beard.

Or he has some indian in him.

A person that has indain in there blood doesn't have a full beard.

A full blooded indian doesn't grow a beard he can't for some reason.

You ever see the pictures of old indians from the old west and none of them grow beards.

Any way I have no Idea

jrbsr

Had the same thing down here last spring. Just like you we found 1 feather that had a white shaft sticking out of the skin about 1 1/2 inch long . Opened it up had a blue black liquid and weird looking feather of some sort.

That's why I posted the "Sorry Team 3" post last spring.

yep....dhf that sounds like it....there was a small feather coming out of the stem thing..but it was smaller then the rest....odd....i thought for sure he rolled himself a nice ole longbeard......would been a nice one.....crazy

Maus,check this article out...it may shed some light on your ???I've taken birds exactly as you describe and called in a gobbler years ago for a friend of mine that sported a totally blond beard!!Heres the article...
http://www.panwtf.com/Wild%20Turkey%20Oddities.htm